For the sake of argument, taking the ZODIAC Killer Case as solved, what major, confirmed serial killer cases remain to be solved? How would you rank them in terms of solvability?

Technically, it always begins with Jack the Ripper. But in terms of solving, I don’t think in any accepted meaning of that word “solve” it is the most solvable case. Then there’s the Cleveland Torso Murders– again very difficult because of lack of evidence. The Doodler is so confused that the public can hardly help, and SF isn’t releasing much information.

But . . .how would you compile them? What case, in essence, should become the focal of attention? Should it be the Long Island Serial Killer? Should it be the Colonial Parkway Murders? The Atlanta Lovers’ Lanes Murders? The Phantom of Texarkana? The Monster of Florence? Mr. Cruel?

. . .Or is it more important to bring to light cases that need weaving together and a possible serial killer brought to light as in operation? –The Houston Stalker? The Killing Fields? Certain attacks along highways?

As important as solving some of the outstanding (remaining) unsolved serial killer cases there are the long hours of research and press attention needed to expose the existence of serial killers having been in action.

Within this category is the Smiley Face Killer Theory. Personally, I don’t believe the theory. But within the vast dossier of young men found drowned in unusual circumstances, there are probably at least 6 or 7 cases of murder. They may not be connected, but then a few might be . . .and that means a serial.

Researchers should devote a long and critical amount of time to looking into these cases of drowned or missing college guys– not to prove the Smiley Theory. Rather the reason should be to establish just how many were likely murdered and therefore bring attention to those cases. We’ve heard of McNeill and Jenkins, but in between and thereafter there are some very unusual cases.

So compile your own list and rank the cases. What do you think should be the cases on the chalkboard?

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

You all deserve an update from me, however, regarding my own search since 2012. As for me, the hand printing is still being sought from several sources. It should be obtained within February, and then after appropriate analysis I will make the announcement here.

As for the official investigation, I know little. I have continued on my own, though some retired LE are now helping to trace hand printing for me. We will soon know without doubt that it is Steve.

Whatever the DNA results are, investigation must still link the owner of the DNA with evidence in perpetration– which means hand printing examples must be acquired by law enforcement (I hope) before any public conclusion can be drawn. Even though DNA can identify a suspect, and pulling his driver’s license will show similar features to the composites, it still requires matching hand printing and, if SFPD is correct, to fingerprints lifted from Stine’s taxi cab. That alone is evidence in perpetration. It is not illegal to lick a stamp. It is illegal to make the claims in the letters that ZODIAC made. And remember, he went out of his way to make sure there was no doubt that he, the letter-writer and the killer were one and the same by lettering the door of the Karman Ghia at Lake Berryessa.

I know there is crankery on the web that claims the letter-writer and the actual killer(s) are not connected, but that it utter rubbish. There was serious doubt all through the end of summer 1969 whether the letter-writer and the killer were one and the same, thanks largely to Vallejo Chief of Police Jack Stiltz. The ZODIAC knew this, and probably hadn’t foreseen such reluctance to accept his word. He rectified that at Lake Berryessa. The writing on the door proves that he the letter writing ZODIAC was one and the same as the killer.

Had it not been for his boasting nature, the crimes never would have been solved. But his hand printing first, then the stamp DNA (maybe) will give his legacy away.

If DNA tags my guy before I can dot the i’s and cross the t’s of hand printing, I will still go ahead with HorrorScope. It is finished anyway. It lays out the old style gumshoe approach to his identity– the connections to a draftsman, the design and building of Humble Oil, small game hunting, his tour in the Air Force, his Texas interlude, his illness and injury, how he knew of Deer Lodge Prison, his various stepfathers, and how he acquired a knowledge of radians, and much more.

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

I m not trying to solve a serial killing here, or even convey to you the details of such a vile crime spree. I am trying to establish the existence of one in operation. It’s been a long time. We have to go through the files Kolchak style. This following involves the events in and around Houston, Texas, late 1980s and into mid 1990s. At this point I am not saying all are connected. I’m saying they should be examined for any connection. And this connection, of course, is to a single perpetrator– the Houston Stalker.

If there are more than a few of these connected, he was a very careful and clever stalker of Houston’s nightlife. The impact these cases present cannot be fully appreciated without having read the database in its entirety, tirelessly comparing all cases of missing women over the great state of Texas for the time period in question. I recommend you do so . . . if you are up to it. To do so will reveal how the missing women around Houston have one thing in common. . . .aside from disappearance and death, that is.

One database can be found here. Texas Missing Under “Case Type” select “Endangered: Foul Play Possible” and then read, read for hours.

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

She was an unlikely fit to be working in the Men’s Club, one of Houston’s largest exotic clubs. She was from a religious family. She may not have done any of the dancing– she only waited tables– but she was still an unlikely fit for the job at the club. Things went well. She made good money. Despite not being one of the exotic dancers, she too was a beautiful young woman.

It had been a couple of years since a dancer had been savagely murdered and another raped in the sweltering summer of 1990. The crimes hadn’t been connected back then as having been done by the same perp, but . . . there are always creeps on the prowl around these clubs. The girls are aware of it all the time.

But these are your average losers and not your premeditated and careful stalkers with a scope on just the right victim. There was little reason to suspect during this hot summer night August 3, 1992, that he had scoped another girl and was cruising the clubs to finally make his move.

. . .If that is what happened.

Everything indicates the Houston Stalker, as I call him, was very confident. He was prepared to take on a couple on his first recorded attack on June 20, 1990. He took on a couple in a risky location (lovers’ lane) and made his attack a fairly prolonged one on the night of August 22, 1990 . . .then he seemed to be gone. Or did he just realize he was leaving too many clues?

There was a lot of talk of DNA already back then. He would realize that if he wanted to continue his binge of crime the bodies could not be found.

After the gruesome murders of Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry, there were a number of disappearances of young women in and around Houston, Harris County. They followed a similar pattern– they had contact with the clubs. They were either last seen leaving one of them or worked in connection with them. One variant is the gym– one worked at a fitness joint. The connection is the same, to an extent– expected voyeurism of a beautiful, young woman.

Before we probe into these cases, let us look at the disappearance of Tara Breckenridge. It was a slow night at the Men’s Club on August 3. The girls were asked who wanted to leave early. Along with another waitress, she opted to go. She clocked out at 12:29 a.m. August 4 and walked past the doorman without acknowledging his “good night.” A security guard walked her to her car, a little red Pontiac Fiero. According to Houston PD’s website, she had left the club a little before 1 a.m.

When her live-in boyfriend, Wayne Hecker, returned to their apartment around 5 a.m. he was surprised that she was not home. She usually got off work at 2 a.m. when the club closed. He and a friend informed the police and went looking for Tara. On the way back to the apartment, on the highway known as West Loop North (which heads north from the Men’s Club to their apartment) they found her Fiero parked on the shoulder. The blinkers were not on. The car alarm was not engaged. And a can of mace was on the passenger seat. She always carried it with her. When her engine hood was finally opened, police discovered that her alternator belt was missing.

What Hecker and everybody else deduced is easy– the alternator belt got thrown from wear, fell down through the engine and onto the highway, and the car coasted on and she had to pull over. Someone came along. She felt safe with whomever it was– leaving the can of mace was proof of that. She left with him. She didn’t leave her blinkers on, etc.

The location where her car was found on the highway.

Fact: she was never seen again.

Who could she have known? It had to be someone who around 1:15 or 1:30 a.m. was on the road. Who could have come along? It seems ludicrous to think someone she knew personally came along randomly unless she was being stalked from a distance that night.

Two suspects came to the fore quickly– her boyfriend Hecker, and an admirer who left her notes expressing joy that she would “marrie” him. One of those kind.

The location of the Men’s Club compared to where the Fiero was found on the highway.

Hecker’s alibi was that he was at a pool hall until around 5 a.m. However, it is the narrative to regurgitate that Hecker was unaccounted for at the pool hall between 12 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. when he was seen to return. This kinda shot his big alibi for the night. The narrative now says he had an hour and forty-five minutes to commit the evil crime and return to the pool hall. This is not true.

Tara had not clocked out until 12:29 a.m., and Houston PD says it was closer to 1 a.m. when she physically left the club. This reduces the crime window to considerably less than 30 minutes. Hecker would need to take some time to return to his pool hall by 1:45 a.m. It doesn’t seem he had much time to kill her and dispose of the body so carefully it has never been found.

The other suspect was the happy note writer who loved her. Both seem a poor fit, however.

For each to fit, the scenario would be the same: it would require that he followed her, saw her pull over, came up and took her away, telling her not to put on her blinkers or alarm. Or he returned afterward with the car keys and turned off the blinkers . . .which seems a waste of time and effort. Or . . . he brought the car to the location, opened the hood, cut the alternator belt to make it look like the car threw it, took it with him, and arranged the car, with her can of mace inside, to make it look like. . . what? Incriminating for someone who knew her? Why do that if the killer really did know her? Also, the last bit would require an accomplice with a car by which the perp could then leave.

Tara was off early that night– unusual. So whoever followed her had waited in the parking lot or along the street. He seized the opportunity when he saw her car on the side of the highway. She felt safe with him or he truly was in a position to come back and arrange the scene.

It sounds like a cop or a guy playing copper. The rape victim of June 1990 said her attacker had a military bearing about him. We know he was an adept stalker. It wasn’t coincidence that the first rape victim of June 1990 was an exotic dancer at the clubs and the second and first (known) murder victim was also. He popped up at the first victim’s house, ready around 2 a.m. when all the clubs closed. Henry and Atkinson were at a lovers’ lane– so he must have followed them after they had left Bayou Mama’s, another club, that hot August night.

In the next post we will look at all the missing women around Houston during this time period– they were last seen at a club.

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

With the rape of an exotic dancer in northwest Houston on Terra Cotta Drive, June 20, 1990, we have a valuable clue to the skulking modus of the Houston Stalker, enough at least to induce his actions on the night he murdered Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson.

The exotic dancer had worked at GiGi’s, and she returned home at 2 a.m. He was waiting upstairs, fishnet hood on, gun in left hand, and standing at the bedroom door. He knew her schedule, at least in the rough. He knew her boyfriend’s name was Randy. He asked “Where is Randy?” So he wasn’t entirely sure where the boyfriend might have been.

So what do we deduce? He learned of her schedule from visiting GiGi’s more than once, but didn’t have a close window into her life otherwise. He must have followed her home one night and learned the address of the house she lived in with her beau.

Two, we must infer that she was his ultimate target and interpret that he wasn’t scared of taking on and binding the boyfriend should she have arrived home with him.

Now– the night of August 22, 1990, two months later. Young Andy and Cheryl left another club– Bayou Mama’s. They went to park at Enclave Round, known back then as a Lovers’ Lane. The industrial park for which the area was in development was slow in coming. So the broad Enclave Parkway was in, even the street lining trees were planted. Cul de sacs were here and there leading to the plowed fields and old trees lines that had enclosed the old farmland.

Houston’s Channel 11 obtained this old aerial of the industrial complex as it looked back then. Atkinson had parked in the circle area of the cul de sac. The thick stand of trees in the far right is the crime scene. You can see how a game path leads there from the circle.

Here they sat on Enclave Round petting, talking, whatever. They were in Andy’s white Honda Civic. The line of trees to the south is about 400 feet from the cul de sac. The next morning when the youngsters had not returned home, a search was started. A security guard had found the car, and called Cheryl’s mother using the phone number in Cheryl’s purse, which was in the car (the car windows were rolled down).

A search commenced, and later the police found their bodies in the densest part of the tree line 400 feet from the Civic. Cheryl had been raped, her wrists bound with hemp rope behind her, she lay face down, with rotted cedar fence palings put on top of her. Her throat had been cut thrice– I’m assuming right to left indicating a left handed perpetrator. About 50 yards away, tied around a tree with hemp rope was Andy. His throat had been cut so deeply he was almost beheaded.

One of his golf clubs had been taken by the perp and laid down on the ground, pointing to Cheryl’s body. A few golf balls made a line pointing toward her.

There, in general, it is. The crime went unsolved. Until 2008 no one knew that the perp had been ready to take on a couple in their own home a couple of months before. The backlog of rape kits from Houston PD was finally processed and a match was made between the rapist/killer of Henry and the rapist and home terrorizer of the exotic dancer from GiGi’s.

Knowing what we know now, we can see a connection. The creep wasn’t scared to take on couples. He wanted the woman really bad and probably came across his intended victims from cruising the club scene.

Both Cheryl and Andy worked at them as well. So we cannot be certain that their killer came across Cheryl while scoping Bayou Mama’s that night. He may have had his eyes on her for a while and was following her at a safe distance that night. He came ready with hemp rope, a knife, probably also a gun as a control weapon, a flashlight, and was prepared to do extending raping and killing in an open area like the undeveloped development.

The exotic dancer at GiGi’s said he had a military stance and bearing, and used aggressive, vulgar language.

We don’t need to go into the crime scene details in this post, but a few points of logistics must be considered. Remember, part of understanding and hence solving a crime is reenacting it. We have to consider just what a perp would need to do to pull this off successfully. The body of facts as we now have them tell us this creep wasn’t just cruising a lovers’ lane area and looking for victims. The odds would be astronomical that he would come across a victim that also worked at an exotic club like his first victim. Therefore we must conclude that his intent was on Cheryl Henry for a while and he followed them that night at a distance and knew it was them in that white Civic.

How did he do it? Did he drive past on Enclave Parkway and see the car sitting down the cul de sac? Did he drive through the cul de sac first and then return? I think the latter unlikely. But he could have parked down the cul de sac at a distance from them. They would have thought it another couple. Then he skulks up and appears at their open window. Or he could have driven up and parked behind them and played cop. This would mean that he had a pretty imposing car. Andy was parked (from the looks of it) at the back of the circle or facing Enclave Parkway toward the back of the circle. They would have seen any car enter the round and then drive down it.

There was blood in the car, so the creep subdued and had to subdue Andy first. Walking a couple in this condition across a plowed field to the densest part of the tree line (in the dark of night) is quite something. I must assume that he took the golf balls and club at the same time. It is hard to believe he came and went from the car after killing them just to position some artifacts. But who knows. The footprint pattern would have told us. The club and balls may have been in the field closer to the car and a taunting message to walk toward the tree line. If so, this would indicate he did walk back to the circle after the murder (thus he had parked there himself).

Comparing the photos above, 1989 and 2002, and then looking at the aerial provided by Houston’s Channel 11, reveals the line of trees was maintained largely intact when the area was finally developed after 1995. The road to the back parking lot was cut through the tree line. Two trees stand forward but close to the line, and they can still be seen in the 2002 Google on the right. One still remains today.

The killer seemed particularly angry at Andy, so I assume Andy had, in fact, challenged him. He patiently tied him up to a tree trunk and then went at it with vengeance. Before or after raping Henry? I assume before.

But this was obviously a very aggressive attack by an accomplished stalker of the club scene, and someone so arrogant that once he fixed a target in his lustful and demented mind nothing was going to stop him.

We will leave it here at this post. Consider the pictures and just what it would take to have the confidence to pull off such a protracted crime at a location like this, on a couple that could not possibly have been random targets. Could he have parked behind them and not fear a cop would check two empty cars at a lovers’ lane? Cops check those locations. Did he park elsewhere and walk a distance to the car? Was he in the military and hence only stationed in Houston for a while? Has this night stalker struck the club scene elsewhere around the country?

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

Within the gruesome annals of lovers’ lane murders there are few that break the common MO of hit and run type of spontaneity. The Zodiac Killer’s attack on a couple at Lake Berryessa is one such example where a couple was taken on close up, hands-on sort of way. The Phantom of Texarkana killed one of his couples that way in 1946. But there aren’t many examples. Usually the victims are shot at and the perp races off, leaving little evidence.

A rare example of a hands-on couple’s killer at a petting spot in more recent times occurred on August 22, 1990. For years the double and savage murders of Cheryl Henry (22) and Andy Atkinson (21) stood as a solitary crime. Because of this the theories were that it could have been revenge. Both worked within the exotic club atmosphere, and many twisted minds find release in such dark and sometimes anonymous places of legal voyeurism. Perhaps it was even a homicidal maniac passing through Houston. But it wasn’t.

Finally, DNA made a match. Some 18 years after-the-fact backlog rape kits were finally processed. The rapist and murderer of Cheryl Henry was the same man who had raped a woman in Houston just two months before and relatively nearby to where he would murder the young couple. He was now a serial, and probably more prolific than the evidence showed.

Hands-on lovers’ lanes killers are usually the gutsiest and most violent. They are also usually the most premeditated. The same rings true here. Let’s look at the circumstances of Houston’s silent stalker.

It was 2 a.m. June 20, 1990. The victim was an exotic dancer at GiGi’s. She just returned to her boyfriend’s house at 7826 Terra Cotta Drive, in west Houston. She went upstairs. There suddenly appearing in the doorway to the master bedroom was a man in a fishnet stocking mask. It distorted his features. It distorted his lips and voice as he snarled at her. He held a gun in his left hand. It had a long barrel. He demanded: “Where’s Randy?”

This was her boyfriend’s name. He knew her boyfriend’s name. He had done some work. Various terror-laced indignities now followed. The hands-on home invaders always seem to like that stuff. They have the time here. We must look at it a bit because it sheds some light on how this maniac must have acted with Henry and Atkinson two months later.

The creep did a number of things. According to reports he taunted her with death. He put the barrel of his pistol to her head and cocked it more than once. He later tied her wrists with duct tape, then sealed her mouth and eyes with it. He shoved a pillow case over her head and then robbed her purse. Then, of course, the swine raped her. Verbally, he was “very vulgar.” Exact words unknown.

I don’t think this guy was too skilled yet. Obviously, she had seen him and he knew that was compromising. As a result, he taunted her that she wasn’t too observant, not noticing he had on a military uniform. The police think that he was trying to convince her she hadn’t seen what they believe was a security guard’s uniform.

After he finished raping her, the usual threat came. He told her to lie on the floor and forewarned her not to move, because: “I may be in the house for an hour or for five minutes.” It’s the usual warning so the victim won’t try and get free and call the police quickly. To make sure of this the assailant had removed the receiver from the phone cradle and stuffed it under the mattress.

He had covered his bases to some extent, but there are a few clues here we have to consider in light of what we know he would do 2 months later. He knew the victim’s boyfriend by name. He could have learned this rummaging in the house. He stationed himself in the master bedroom, the obvious first place one of them would go upstairs. He probably wasn’t afraid to take them both on.

Quiet Terra Cotta Drive.

Although he may have learned the boyfriend’s name from some document within the house, he had likely come across her at GiGi’s. He wanted her bad and he was ready to take on the boyfriend if he had to. But would he have murdered her and her boyfriend if they had been together?

This we don’t know, but it is a big jump in crime strategy to go from a single rape in a victim’s house to being fully prepared to bind a couple at their car at a petting spot on the fringes of Houston’s rural area. From what it sounds like with his first known victim, he really enjoyed his “fun.” With Henry and Atkinson, he would bind them both, lead them into the woods (100 yards apart), rape her, and then cut both their throats, the boy’s so deeply he almost took off his head in his bloodlust.

All that we have is DNA on this Kolchakian style “Night Strangler” type of villain I have labeled the Houston Stalker. The sketch that opens this blog article was done 18 years after-the-fact, and you may take it for what it is worth. The victim insisted the assailant was: “white man in his mid-30s, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds with brown hair, brown eyes, a possible mustache and olive skin.”

One thing seems evident: this was no ordinary rapist and lovers’ lane assailant. He’s probably responsible for more missing women, but he made sure there was no evidence (bodies never found, of course). His two mistakes are his first rape (presumably first) in west Houston and then the double murder of Henry and Atkinson.

It is time many researchers started looking into reports and files– crimes on individual women home alone or couples where they were not murdered (yet), and then on couples murders, then missing women associated with the nightclub circuit, to see via MO how many links can be made.

In our next post we will probe into the murders of Atkinson and Henry.

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

Unlike Proctor Valley Jane, this murder victim was identifiable. Yet from the little that San Diego sheriffs have released on her murder, it seems her death had to be determined to be a murder– so it seems it wasn’t too evident at face value such as an obvious knifing or shooting.

In fact, there is too little, and unnecessarily too little, information on the death of Elizabeth Heidt. Two days before Christmas 1977– a month and a half before Proctor Valley Jane’s body was found in a ditch off Proctor Valley Road in Otay– Heidt’s body was found in a drainage ditch a mile east of where Steele Canyon Road meets with Route 94 in Jamul (pronounced Hamool), east of San Diego.

She too was young, far too young.

Her murder is a cold case, and there is little likelihood of it being solved let alone linked to Proctor Valley Jane of one and a half months later in Otay unless there is much more information released on the circumstances.

The area of Steele Canyon Road where her body was found remains undeveloped. The map shows how close Proctor Valley Road is. The difference is Highway 94 is the main backroad out of San Diego going east for whatever reason. It becomes Campo Road. Proctor Valley Road remains quite outback to this day, and it would take a little knowledge to know where it is. But if the same killer is afoot he had enough time to find it.

Much more information needs to come out about the murder of Heidt.

If a killer was passing through San Diego for these months, he made it a point to drop bodies in the rural areas southeast. It is likely he headed to Arizona after this. I don’t know of any other cold cases that come close to the MO here. . . and sadly the way the bodies were discarded is a common MO. Proctor Valley Jane being poisoned, however, is pretty unique.

Not saying either of the above are the location of the body drop, but such ditches are all along Highway 94 here approaching Jamul.

* * *Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.